The Church will be led by China

China's place in the Christian movement has not been the propagation of Christendom and Western hegemony, as nearly everyone now agrees - in reality, Christendom has long been a historical anachronism. As Huo Shui, a former government political analyst observes, the Christian idea of love has introduced a new value system in China, including the idea of repentance "which is lacking in Chinese culture." He writes of a moral revolution in the New China where the "Christian faith became more indigenous . . . you can no longer say that Christianity is a foreign religion. The Churches are led by Chinese. You see Chinese Bibles. You hear Chinese worship songs. You experience a Chinese style of worship. The church looks and feels Chinese . . . Christianity has finally take root in Shenzhou - in China, the land of God." All this suggests that a China strengthened by its own resources and renewed in its own identity would be a China well endowed to assume a leadership role in the scheme of post-Western Christian developments.

- Lamin Sanneh, Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity (bold mine)

Reflections on... Free Churches (FTS_MC500)

For our last class we took up the topic of the ecclesiological grouping known as the Free Churches, which includes everything from Baptist to Assembly of God, from Nazarene to Quaker. For the sake of ease of discussion, we covered the beginning of the Free Church from at the time of the Reformation, the Anabaptists. Their movement was referred to as the Radical Reformation, because not only did they take up the reforms of Luther and Calvin, but they also went even further to deconstruct the entire structure of the church as it existed. Whereas the Reformation continued to maintain the symbiotic partnership between church and state and the expression of the church as one visible institution, the Radical Reformation broke ties with both the government structures and the visible institution of the church. This movement began with a Bible study led by Ulrich Zwingli, from which many left to form independant communities of re-baptized adults. Zwingli, one of the leading Reformers, distanced himself from these Anabaptists ("ana" meaning "again"). Charactersitc of the Anabaptist and most Free Church movements is, of course, adult baptism, an emphasis on holiness, a central focus on the Scriptures, an understanding of the church as against the world, a more thorough emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, and an understanding of sacraments as merely symbols.

We finished the discussion on Free Churches with a brief overview of the modern global Pentecostal movement. Most Pentecostals would trace their roots to the Azusa street revival of 1906 in Los Angeles, and since then, according to Dr. Bolger, the Pentecostal movement has become the fastest growing social movement anywhere in the world and at any time of history. Pentecostalism is more appropriately described as a movement, since there are many different denominations within Pentecostalism, not to mention all the independant churches scattered throughout the world. The two striking characteristics of the early Pentecostal movement were, of course, the phenomena of speaking in tongues, but also, and perhaps more significantly, the radical racial and gender diversity within the same movement. From the very beginning the poor and rich, men and women, and people from all ethnicities and nationalities were in together in fellowship, in leadership even. According to Dr. Bolger, one could sum up the basic Gospel message of the Pentecostals as: Jesus is your savior, he will baptize you in the Spirit, God heals, and Jesus is coming again. With this basic foundation, Pentecostalism has swept the globe and become the second largest Christian movement next to Roman Catholicism.

This ends my reflection on lectures from my class, Church in Mission. This next week I will be starting a class called, Encountering the City. I plan on blogging through the daily lectures there as well. I hope it proves helpful for all of us!

Reflections on... Calvin and the Reformed Church (FTS_MC500)

Here's a few little interesting background bits about John Calvin: he studied law and philosophy before getting into theology, he was mild-mannered in contrast to Luther's hot-tempered nature, he wrote his first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion before he was 30 and with no theological education, and he like to sing the Psalms.

What Calvin did in Geneva during his time there was to help create a fully Christian society where the government, society, and the church lived symbiotically together. Laws were in place such that everyone was required to go to church, take communion (provided they were not excommunicated), etc. To some it would seem that Calvin was a controlling and domineering religious figure. But, with respect to his context there's a few things to note.

Calvin did not view laws as producing Christians directly. He did not seek to legislate morality in that sense. Laws were in place because they expressed God's will for society, but the Gospel was preached because people could not keep the laws. The function of the law in Geneva was not to make people holy, it was to make them repentant. Calvin believed that in the context of law and the preaching of the Gospel, people would repent and believe Christ for salvation from the penalty and power of sin.

Calvin also emphasized that each person is endowed by God with something special, some gift, to be developed and employed for the worship of God. Among the many other ways in which Calvin impacted the Reformation, this was a unique contribution of his.

Where Calvin and Luther differed with respect to church traditions, Calvin moved away from Catholic teaching on the Eucharist by clarifying that it is not the "real presence" but the "true presence" of Christ that is mediated in Communion. By this he meant that Christ is not brought down to indwell the bread and wine but that by the bread and wine we are brought up into the presence of Christ at the right hand of the Father.

Reflections on... The Reformation and Luther's Eccelesiology (FTS_MC500)

Making our way through the centuries of the church in mission, we finished our general discussion of the church after Constantine. We noted that ecclesial authority and civil authority functioned more and more symbiotically until at last, under the new kings after the fall of Rome, the church and state were one and the same. The new kings, after having conquered and destroyed the Roman empire, had no civil structure for authority except for the institution of the church. The bishops became mayors and governors, so to speak, and the state effectively appropriated the church for civil, as well as, religious authority. The sacraments, as a result, become the property of the state, baptism, for example, being the entry into not only the kingdom of God, but also the entry into the kingdom of whichever king was ruling at the time. The church continues to serve as the social service arm of the government. The only true witness to the kingdom of God and the Gospel of Christ was the monastery, which became the primary educator in the empire. This mixture of empire and church created the cocktail in which Martin Luther and the Reformation would explode across Europe in the 16th century.

Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and Bible teacher, reacted against the corruption and control of the Roman Church's hierarchy and doctrine, responding with two major themes: justification by grace through faith and the priesthood of all believers. For Luther, every single doctrine and practice of the church was reinterpreted and refashioned according to this doctrine of justification by grace through faith. Although many things changed in this reconstituting of the church around the doctrine of justification by grace, ecclesiology remained largely the same. Baptism was still the way by which infants were joined to the church and society, and the partnership between church and state remained central to society.

As we reflected on the work of Luther and the Reformation, especially with regards to ecclesiology, I was reminded of a few observations made by Luther in his The German Mass and Order of Divine Service (thanks to Alan Knox for the reference). It seems that there were both "seeker-sensitive" and "incarnational/organic church" models in Luther's mind as well! I will quote at length. First, Luther's "seeker-sensitive" model:

Next, there is the German Mass and Divine Service, of which we are now treating. This ought to be set up for the sake of the simple laymen. Both these kinds of Service then we must have held and publicly celebrated in church for the people in general. They are not yet believers or Christians. But the greater part stand there and gape, simply to see something new: and it is just as if we held Divine Service in an open square or field amongst Turks or heathen. So far it is no question yet of a regularly fixed assembly wherein to train Christians according to the Gospel: but rather of a public allurement to faith and Christianity.

But Luther would have preferred a more organic/incarnational model, had he had the leaders for it.

But the third sort [of Divine Service], which the true type of Evangelical Order should embrace, must not be celebrated so publicly in the square amongst all and sundry. Those, however, who are desirous of being Christians in earnest, and are ready to profess the Gospel with hand and mouth, should register their names and assemble by themselves in some house to pray, to read, to baptize and to receive the sacrament and practise other Christian works. In this Order, those whose conduct was not such as befits Christians could be recognized, reproved, reformed, rejected, or excommunicated, according to the rule of Christ in Matt. xviii. Here, too, a general giving of alms could be imposed on Christians, to be willingly given and divided among the poor, after the example of St. Paul in 2 Cor. ix. Here there would not be need of much fine singing. Here we could have baptism and the sacrament in short and simple fashion: and direct everything towards the Word and prayer and love. Here we should have a good short Catechism about the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. In one word, if we only had people who longed to be Christians in earnest, Form and Order would soon shape itself. But I cannot and would not order or arrange such a community or congregation at present. I have not the requisite persons for it, nor do I see many who are urgent for it.

From the rest of his writings on the mass, it is clear that Luther was aware of issues of contextualization as well as some of ecumenism. How far he went with these is apparent in the history, but it is interesting, even encouraging, to see them in writing.

Reflections on... St. Patrick (FTS_MC500)

Today in class we discussed the church after Constantine in preparation for our next class on the Reformation. In lieu of the discussion we watched a short video about the life of St. Patrick and his mission to the Irish. We started the class by reading the Lorica, the prayer of St. Patrick also known as the Breastplate of St. Patrick.

St. Patrick was the son of wealthy landowners who was taken as a slave by the invading Irish. After receiving his freedom God called him in a dream to come back to Ireland with the Gospel (cf. Paul and the Macedonians). After 12 years of study and preparation, Patrick went to Ireland (cf. Paul and his time in the wilderness as referred to in Galatians). Patrick would camp with tribe after tribe of Irishmen, witnessing to the power of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By the time of Patrick's death, all of Ireland was Christian.

It seems significant to me that Patrick spent 12 years preparing after receiving such a clear call from God to go to Ireland. It seems that the expectation nowadays is that obedience to a call should look like immediate action, whereas for St. Patrick, it took preparation, 12 years of it. Also, Patrick's method, of going tribe by tribe and implanting the Gospel and the church into the Irish culture was healthy and effective. It was the Irish Christians who saved Western civilization through their scholarship during the Dark Ages. Education was important. Finally, Patrick was known for confronting the evil powers of the Irish tribal religions. Power encounters were not uncommon.

In light of all of the conversion that occurred during the years following Constantine, the conversion of Ireland under St. Patrick stands out as a shining example of mission gone well.

Reflections on... The Pre-Constantinian Era (FTS_MC500)

Today we finished our discussion on the the era after the first century and before Constantine. Some of the changes during this era included the re-institutionalizing of religion after Jesus had deconstructed it during the first century. Whereas Jesus deconstructed the power structures and religious perspectives of Judaism, after the first century the church began to re-implement similar values of power in hierarchy and professionalism of a special clergy-class. Whereas Jesus said, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them," the pre-Constantinian church said, "where they are gathered around a rightly consecrated bishop rightly administering the the Eucharist, there is the church, the presence of Christ. Where there is no bishop, there is no church." The reasons for this may have been practical as well as theological: the church grew from roughly 10,000 in AD 100 to around 6,000,000 in AD 300. It took quite a bit more effort to care for a maintain the church at the end of the third century than it did at the end of the first.

One observation that Dr. Bolger made was that even though such growth over the second two centuries of the church seems massively exponentional, spaced out over the course of 200 years, it is more of a consistently steady growth over a long period of time. This brings home the reality that in the first few centuries, just as in the last few centuries, the backbone of church evangelism and growth has been through slow, steady conversion of friends and family members. Though there have been missionaries to new locations and mass revival type meetings, the long-lasting growth of the church has occurred as friends and family members are drawn into the church through exposure to life transformation and honest witness.

Finally, another interesting historical fact was a reference to a statement by one of the early church fathers, Tertullian, around AD 200. He made some comments to the effect that when people come to worship they should bring their own contributions, such as hymns. Over the course of the next few centuries, the church gathering went from being more active/participatory to more passive/receptive. It reminds me of something I've said before, that if you can still have the meeting with no one in attendance, then you're really not having a meeting, you're putting on a show. Shows have their place, but not in a family gathering.

Reflections on... The Church before Constantine (FTS_MC500)

Today we covered the church before Constantine. I should have known this, but only today did I realize that the structure of our lectures follows the "church worksheet" that we have for the class. Over the course of the class we will discuss the church in light of its mission at several different stages and in many of its forms. For each stage or tradition we will discuss it with respect to that particular church tradition's understanding of the nature of the church, its liturgy and sacraments, community and service, mission and witness, and organization and leadership. Today we discussed the church prior to Constantine and the "officializing" of Christianity in the empire. (I didn't say what I have commonly heard said concerning Constantine, that he "Christianized" the empire. Though that could be said, and I stand to be corrected, from what we discussed in class, it seems more that Constantine appropriated the already massive and well-organized institution of the fourth century church. Yep, I don't think we can blame the setbacks of Christendom on Constantine alone. If the picture of the Jewish religious leaders in the Gospels are of any help here, it seems that the tendency towards over-institutionalizing and professionalizing religion runs deep.)

We discussed how understanding of the sacraments changed over the next few centuries before Constantine. As the sacraments gained theological weight, so did the regulations and requirements surrounding them. The combination of high salvific effectiveness attributed to baptism, the high infant mortality rate, and the growing belief in original sin led to increasing practice of infant baptism. This of course, necessitated something like confirmation, to ensure the conversion of the baptised. So, how do you have a high theology of the sacraments while avoiding the high control that resulted? The priesthood of all believers. The sacraments belong to the church, not to a certain group within the church. That is why I think it is good to practice the "you catch 'em, you clean 'em" approach to baptism. (Though that's such a weird way to put it.) My former pastor once told me that he though we para-church campus ministers should be baptizing our new believers. I think he's right, given that we do so in view of the church - the church on campus or the church in the community, it does not matter which. The lines between Church universal, local church, and para-church are not so sharp as we imagine them. The important thing is that we remain aware that we all represent the Church, regardless whether that shows up on our business card or in our email address or not.

Similarly, with the Lord's Supper, teachers began to attribute more and more signifance to the physical bread and wine in response to the Docetists who downplayed the physical and material nature of Christian faith. Because of the growing significance of the Lord's Supper, and the growth of groups within the church whose practices were less than orthodox, bishops had to exercise more and more control. Though I'm sure that the motivation wasn't merely for power and control, over the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries, the divide between the clergy and laity grew so that the clergy became spiritual "providers" instead of one gifted believer among many. Just in case it's not clear, I think that was not the most helpful development...

We watched another video in class, this time from PBS Frontline, "From Jesus to Christ." In the video we were shown a piece of paper that one would receive for sacrificing to the emperor. This "receipt" was necessary for avoiding persecution for not worshiping the emperor at the appointed times. Though they didn't mention it in the video, I suspect that punishmet for not having the ticket ranged from fines to imprisonment to beatings to death. It's not hard to imagine that some of the 3rd century Christians found in this a direct fulfillment of the "mark of the beast" in John's Revelation.

Reflections on... First Century Churches (FTS_MC500)

Today we wrapped up our discussion on First Century Discussion, beginning with a small group discussion time centered on Acts 2:42-47. It's always interesting to discuss passages that we in Campus Crusade for Christ focus on so heavily. Not that we own any of these passages, far from it, but discussions outside of a CCC context always bear out how we selectively read passages, for good and ill. We call this one the Transformational Community passage, because it is the first example of a transformational community where people are being won to Christ, built up in their faith, and sent out to reach others. We emphasize well the reality of "biblical teaching, prayer, and real koininia (fellowship)" present in the "Acts 2" church. At the center of our hope for the college campus is the vision of seeing students embody this kind of community where they and the surrounding community will be awe of the ways in which God is at work, seeing others added to the community of believers with great regularity, until "everyone knows someone that truly follows Jesus," as we say. Of course, our reading of Acts 2 is selective, as are others'. The problem is that in our standard schema of a "transformational community" for the campus we leave out some of the most prominent characterizations of this Acts 2 community: celebrating the Eucharist (if that is indeed what "breaking bread" refers to; if not then at least true table fellowship should be practiced on campus), "signs and wonders" (which here was done by the apostles but seems to have spread throughout the church in the New Testament [Phillip in Acts 8:4-8, many in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 27-31), observance of regular prayer times, radical hospitality and generosity for the common good, finding favor with outsiders, and daily interaction with each other and those outside such that there could be daily entrance into the new community of "the saved." I see some of these things changing on a grassroots level, but I hope that we as leaders and campus workers will promote it and not resist it in the eyars to come.

We also discussed Christian Worship in the First Century, Christian Mission in the First Century, and Leadership in the First Century church. It was interesting to note that the "order of worship" in mostly Jewish churches was inherited from the synagogue: opening prayer and praise, creedal confession and benedictions, reading from the Scriptures, and a homily. According to Dr. Bolger, many of these first Jewish churches, the house in which the synagogue met became the house in which the church met. The order of worship in those churches which had little to no Jewish influence were much more fluid and varied, cf. the letters to the Corinthians and the Thessalonians. As we were discussing, I was reminded of stories Dr. Jay Travis told about Muslims who begin to believe in Isa (Jesus) and meet to read the Quran and the Injil (New Testament), pray for each other, and apply the teachings of Jesus to their lives. The form of their meetings remain the same, but the content and the resulting community changes.

One last bit of interest: it was observed that there is little evidence that collecting money was a regular (certainly not weekly) part of the meeting together of the first churches. As Ravi Zacharias has wryly asked in this regard, what does it say about us that we hold tightly to a weekly offering but with reluctance institute a monthly Lord's Supper of stale crackers and a thimble of grape juice? It betrays our financial and dogmatic fears at worst, and our troublesome professionalizing of the clergy at best. Rather, it would seem, we should celebrate communion weekly in smaller setting where people are know and food can be enjoyed, and congregational giving should be generous and according to needs.

Confessions #12: Magneto

One of Augustine's stumbling blocks to Christianity and the Bible in particular initially was his aversion to the stories of the Old Testament where he often found those reputed to be "righteous" to do some seemingly very "unrighteous" things. He, like the Manichees with whom he spent many years in fellowship, was disgusted by the polygamy of the patriarchs, the character of those like Moses and David who committed murder, and the Old Testament sacrifices.

But along the way of his education, Augustine came upon Cicero's Hortensius, in which he was drawn irresistibly to the search for wisdom and truth in the study of philosophy. Augustine comments, "The book changed my feelings. It altered my prayers, Lord, to be towards you yourself. It gave me different values and priorities. Suddenly every vain hope became empty to me, and I longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardor in my heart. I began to rise up and return to you."

Augustine also recalled about Hortensius that he was "impressed not by the book's refining effect on my style and literary expression but by the content." In the footnote, Chadwick remarks that "among Augustine's sharp criticisms of contemporary culture of his time is the proposition that it valued for far higher than content." How true that seems to be today! How many more albums have been sold by the packaged pop bands than by those that sing about meaningful issues? Or how many times has the latest blockbuster been more of a glorified fireworks show with some witty lines and a vague moral platitude than a film of substance and reflective analysis of life and culture? It is not much different in the Church where if the music doesn't sound a certain way or the design isn't quite cool enough, we pass it by regardless of the content of the message. We live in a very similar age.

So it was Augustine's reading of philosophy, particularly Hortensius, that lead him back to the Scriptures. Cicero had exhorted him "not to study one particular sect but to love and seek and pursue and hold fast and strongly embrace wisdom itself, wherever found." One thing that held Augustine back in his enthusiasm for Cicero's call to philosophy was this--"that the name of Christ was not contained in the book." Because of his mother's influence, the memory of Christ was implanted in him deeply, and "any book which lacked this name, however well written or polished or true, could not entirely grip [him]."

In Augustine's return the the Scriptures he found "something neither open to the proud nor laid bare to mere children; a text lowly to the beginner but, on further reading, of mountainous difficulty and enveloped in mysteries." He was not ready at that time to begin the ascent into the mysteries of the Scriptures. Augustine was still thought too highly of his own taste and preferred the large tomes of philosophy current at that time. He was not yet able to start from the beginning, as it were, as a child. But the seed had been planted in him; the seed of hunger for wisdom, for truth, over against the love of vanity and physical pleasures. Not only did Augustine direct his search upward through the thoughts and words of the philosophers, but also through his reflection on the created order. Still, in all these things, Augustine still was hungry, hungry for truth, for nourishment. As he said, "I derived no nourishment from them, but was left more exhausted than before." So it was this memory of Christ and the hunger that his absence affected that would eventually lead Augustine back to the Scriptures and to the God whom Scriptures reveal.

The last line of one of John Donne's holy sonnets (which are holy not because they're sonnets, though many a high school teacher might disagree, but because their content is about that which is holy) goes like this: "And thou like Adamant draw mine iron heart." Adamant is a magnetic loadstone, so you can imagine what would the nature of its relationship with iron be like. So it is with our hearts, hard and heavy as iron before the Lord. We do not, indeed we cannot, rise to meet him in the air, as the rapture imagery so goes. His Word hangs in the air like a thick cloud, unreachable, but even if we did reach it, we have not the capability of capturing it's shape or form. So we need him, to come on those clouds, like Magneto, to draw us up into is his atmosphere, His Word, His life. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Confessions #9: the love of love

Having now traveled a few days into the Thanksgiving holidays, my little writing project has been set aside for other things that have been more immanent, namely our regional staff retreat with Campus Crusade for Christ staff and the normal catching up with the family. So, I may only have a couple of entries this week, but I hope they will overcome their poverty of quantity with a wealth of quality. ;)

Here I start on Book 3 of The Confessions, where Augustine recounts his coming to Carthage in 370 A.D as a young man of 16 to begin his formal studies. It was in Carthage that Augustine began his life of high culture, learning, and promiscuity. It was not until he reached 18 and read Cicero's Hortensius that it dawned on Augustine that happiness was not found in food, sex, and purely material pleasures. In that respect, there are not a few similarities between Augustine as a young male university student and the experience and temptations of many today. The lure and hunger for physical pleasure, notoriety, and and materialism are as alive today, or even more so, as they were in the fourth century. There is nothing new under the sun.

As it begins, Augustine recalls that he "came to Carthage and all around me hissed a cauldron of illicit loves. As yet I had never been in love and I longed to love." How often this is the situation for not only the modern college student, but even for those entering high school and even junior high. The "cauldron of illicit loves" has boiled over and filtered down through our tv's, computers, iPods, and lunchroom conversations. In that respect, I wonder if the cauldron burns hotter and broader than it once did in Augustine's day.

Augustine goes on to say, regarding the fact that he longed to love but had never been in love, that "from a subconscious poverty of mind I hated the thought of being less inwardly destitute. I sought an object for my love, I was in love with love, and I hated safety and a path free of snares." It should be said that Augustine's understanding of "love" was certainly age-appropriate and not the mature, self-giving sort of love that is true love, marital or otherwise. On reading these remarks at first, I didn't quite understand what Augusine meant by saying he "hated the thought of being less inwardly destitute." I thought that certainly he did not want to be more inwardly destitute. In Albert Outler's translation, we have Augustine saying it this way, "from a hidden hunger, I hated myself for not feeling more intensely a sense of hunger." So, it occurred to me that although Augustine had not experienced that love for which he longed, he was reflecting on the fact that he loved his desire for illicit love so much so that he hated that it was not stronger than it was. He thought the idea of his becoming less hungry for this illicit love as something to be despised and avoided altogether, and only later on did he realize that this was an indication, not of the virtue of his illicit hunger, but of its poverty and the magnitude of his real hunger beneath it for incorruptible love. Augustine loved his illicit hunger, not knowing that it would overtake him to consume him. He said,

"my hunger was internal, deprived of inward food, that is of you yourself, my God. But that was not the kind of hunger I felt. I was without any desire for incorruptible nourishment, not because I was replete with it, but the emptier I was, the more unappetizing such food became...I was glad to be in bondage, tied with troublesome chains, with the result that I was flogged with the red hot iron rods of jealousy, suspicion, fear, anger, and contention."

I have noticed this same inclination in my own heart, that I find many times that I am in love with desire, illicit or otherwise, to the exclusion of its object, the corruption of the purposes of desire itself, and the loss of real love. This affects relationships in the most radical way. Several years ago while interning with a youth group in near Houston, I realized during the Sunday morning worship time that my anxiety over how I "felt" during the singing time was really more an indication of me worshiping not the Lord who is to be worshiped but the experience of worship itself. It was and is an idolatry to be repented of, worshiping the relationship over the one I relate to, or in the words of Romans, "worshiping the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever." I also find this principle at work concerning human relationships, especially of the romantic kind, that I (I would say "we", but I dare only speak for myself) tend to love the experience of the relationship more than the one with whom I am in relationship. This is that very same self-centered destructive principle also at work in worship that I mentioned earlier, where we become "spiritually inbred". If Christ and his image is not at the center, then things become convoluted indeed!

Toward the end of this first paragraph, Augustine recalls how he had "rushed headlong into love, by which I was longing to be captured." But then he prays, "'My God, my mercy' in your goodness you mixed in much vinegar with that sweetness." So this continues to be the theme of much of Augustine's journey to conversion, that God exposed to him the depravity of his own pursuits so that he would turn to the source of true satisfaction and love. He was restless, and his heart would be at rest until it rested in God. We also pray with Augustine that in His mercy God would mix in vinegar with all that is at first sweet in our sinful pursuits so that we would return to Him, "the shepherd and guardian of our souls."

Confessions #8: the gift of worship

"Therefore he who made me is good, and he is my good, and I exult to him, for all the good things that I was even as a boy. My sin consisted in this, that I sought pleasure, sublimity, and truth not in God but in his creatures, in myself and other created beings. So it was that I plunged into miseries, confusions, and errors. My God, I give thanks to you, my source of sweet delight, and my glory and my confidence. I thank you for your gifts. Keep them for me, for in this way you will keep me. The talents you have given will increase and be perfected, and I will be with you since it was your gift to me that I exist."
- Augustine

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and he said, "It is good." He made the heavens above and the earth beneath and filled them with birds and fish and plants and other animals, and he made man and woman after himself to govern and cultivate the earth as his stewards. But man and woman chose to worship the things they were to rule over, even themselves, and we continue to plunge ourselves into "miseries, confusions, and errors."

It's like becoming spiritually inbred. We worship ourselves and so complicate, multiply, and propagate the corruptions in our own nature. So Jesus comes to fix our broken, crooked DNA with "the word of life, which is able to save our souls."

Maybe that's why he's the "seed of Abraham". Like a human genome project in the divine laboratory, and project to map our flaws and inject the healing strand, the seed of new life, from which sprouts true worship, in spirit and in truth, to the creator himself. This true worship, spreading like a virus of light throughout the darkest rooms of our heart to realign, renew, rebuild, refresh, restore.

It says of Jesus that when he ascended "gave gifts to men", gifts of worship I assume, so that in possession of them we are possessed by the one who gives them, in thankfulness, in worship.

Some say that this life is merely preparation for the next. If that is true, and gifts and talents are really gifts for worship, then I had better get busy worshiping. Or else, I might not have much to do in the next life but sit on the bench. Whatever the afterlife (or life after life after death, as some say) holds, it sure isn't a place you'd want to be "benched" at for lack of practice.

Time to start existing.

"authentic Christian mission"

“Historically the church has indeed seen its mission in these broad terms. It is not a matter of engaging in both the gospel and social action, as if Christian social action was something separate from the gospel itself. The gospel has to be demonstrated in word and deed. Biblically, the gospel includes the totality of all that is good news from God for all that is bad news in human life–in every sphere. So like Jesus, authentic Christian mission has included good news for the poor, compassion for the sick and suffering justice for the oppressed, liberation for the enslaved. The gospel of the Servant of God in the power of the Spirit of God addresses every area of human need and every area that has been broken and twisted by sin and evil. And the heart of the gospel, in all of these areas, is the cross of Christ.”
- Christopher J. H. Wright (italics mine)

- found on the front page of The Boars Head Tavern blog

Confessions #6: Woe to the Silent

"But in these words what have I said, my God, my life, my holy sweetness? What has anyone achieved in words when he speaks about you? Yet woe to those who are silent about you because, though loquacious with verbosity, whey have nothing to say."

In the notes, Chadwick observes that in the Confessions "the loquacious" are usually "either pagan philosophical critics rejecting the Christian revelation or Manichees." So, it was not for want of speaking about the divine that Augustine criticized these, but for want of speaking truly and meaningfully about God. They were somewhat like the smooth-talkers and the weak-willed women of 2 Timothy who were "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth" or those from 1 Timothy who devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship which is from God by faith."

Instead of these wanderings and divergences, as Paul told Timothy, "the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." And as Augustine observes, in love we must speak of God, of His goodness and his nature, or else we will find ourselves like the prophet Jeremiah who said,

If I say, "I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,"
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.

So, "since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, 'I believed, and so I spoke,' we also believe, and so we also speak" with words that at best fall just short of the Word whose words are "spirit and life". If we don't speak, it is true, the rocks will cry out. But why wait for them, when it is we who have been charged to speak to the mountains and have them cast into the sea?

I will end with Augustine's words that led to his observation above:

"Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and 'leading' the proud 'to be old without their knowledge'; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking; you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you 'repent' without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost..."

Confessions #5: Heart-rest

"You are great, Lord, and highly to be praised," begins the first paragraph of Augustine's Confessions. Although humankind bears "'his mortality with him', carrying with him the witness of his sin and the witness that you 'resist the proud'...Nevertheless," Augustine prays, "to praise you is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." Doubtless you have heard this refrain before but possibly did not know where it came from. "You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you." It is the theme of the Confessions and of Augustine's story found in its pages.

"The LORD our righteousness", the Israelites said of YHWH, their faithful, covenant, creator-God.
"He himself is our peace", said the apostle Paul of Jesus, YHWH incarnate, God in the flesh "reconciling the world to Himself."
Jesus himself says, "come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
And we therefore follow the urging of the author of Hebrews who says, "let us therefore strive to enter that rest."
So we say, "Yes, Lord. You urge us to 'keep ourselves in your love, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.' So fill us with 'joy and peace in believing' so that we may 'abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit'. We are yours; you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you."

Confessions #4

So the final comment on what is written in the the introduction (I must get on to the book itself!) will be in relation to this quote:

"In Augustine's time there were a few educated people for whom all religion was superstition; but the dominant consensus held to belief in divine providence, visible in the mathematical order and coherence of the world, and given special manifestations to individuals by dreams and oracles. Design was evident to the eye."

How different it seems to be in America these days! Do you agree? Is belief in "divine providence" more common than not among the average American?

Throughout his life and wanderings, as Chadwick observes, Augustine "never lost his belief in the being and providence of God." Even though he was at times very far away from the Christian faith, he still seemed to hold on (unknowingly) to the promise of Hebrews 11:6 that "whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."

Even in the very first paragraphs of the Confessions, this theme of seeking and finding is already apparent:

"In seeking them they find him, and in finding they will praise him. Lord, I would seek you, calling upon you--and calling upon you is an act of believing in you...It is your gift to me."

So, in Augustine's day, although there was a common assumption in divine providence with the occasional divine "flare up", it seems that the belief in a real, immanent God who is actively involved in world and people's lives was not the reigning perspective. But Augustine discovered otherwise. Let us pray that would be the case in this day as well.

Confessions #3

In discussing the events leading up to Augustine's conversion, Chadwick notes in the introduction that Augustine's move to Milan from North Africa coincided with a growing intellectual crisis in which his "lost belief in Mani (the leader of a gnostic religious group) was replaced by a skepticism about the possibility of any certainty. He devoured the writings of skeptical philosophers of the Academic school telling him that certainty is not available except in questions of pure mathematics." Chadwick rightly observes that it was this disillusionment with Manicheism and resultant skepticism towards any certainty that laid the ground work for his later conversion.
As a side note, if in the 4th century pure mathematics was the only discipline in which one could hope for any certainty, then as of the turn of the previous century, that's not an option either. I guess certainty needs to be of a different sort and come from outside of us if it is to achieve what we hope "certainty" would achieve. Maybe this is why, later on in the Confessions, Augustine said "My desire was not to be more certain of you, but to be more stable in you." So the "certainty" or "stability" we need is not so much a scientific and cognitive one as much as it is a relational and holistic one.
It seems to me that we are in a period of skepticism much like Augustine's where disillusionment with a disappointing worldview and the proponents thereof have led to a radical skepticism about certainty and any sort of realistic hope for meaning and change. Could it be that we are being readied for conversion? Would it be that the Spirit who groans and intercedes for us on our behalf would cause Augustine's same prayer of "stability in you" to be our prayer in such unstable times? Would the Spirit who also convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment use this to bring the restless skeptics despairing of certainty and meaning to Jesus to "find their rest in Him"? Yes Lord! Amen!

Confessions #2

Still in the introduction, the second thing that caught my attention was Chadwick's discussion of Augustine's first exposure to the Bible. Augustine was first led to pick up the Bible after reading Cicero's Hortensius in which Cicero taught that "happiness is not found in physical pleasures of luxurious food, drink, and sex, but in a dedication of the mind to the discovery of truth." Prompted to explore the foundation of true happiness as the "discovery of truth", Augustine was turned off by the language of the 200 year old Latin Bible he found. The language of the translation was so rough that it immediately offended the sensibilities of Augustine who was used to classic and skilled Latin of those like Cicero and Virgil. As Chadwick notes, "Augustine found that once he had put it down, it was hard to pick up again. Moreover, he was offended by the polygamy of Old Testament patriarchs and the different genealogies of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke."
When I first read this I was again struck by the similarities in Augustine's reaction to the Bible and of the reactions of those in our own day. We are descendants of the Western culture that found its birth not long before Augustine's time, and we still suffer much of the shortsightedness and cross-cultural tension that Augustine did when he read the Bible for the first time. Although Augustine was much closer to the original setting of the New Testament than we are, his philosophical mindset and worldview was still far removed from the earthy aspect of Christianity and its roots in the world. He was not prepared to take into account the translational "gap" that had arisen over the 200 years of change and learning. He was also not prepared for the differences in genre and perspective that the Biblical authors used to communicate their religious realities and experience. The earthy and literary nature of the Jewish writings and worldview were different enough from the abstract and speculative reason of the Hellenistic philosophers to cause Augustine to stumble over the Scriptures. Yet, in time, by God's sovereign grace Augustine came back around to understand, appreciate, and believe the Scriptures and the God they presented.
All of this underscores the fact that we need fresh and current translations of the Scriptures that speak in the language and to the thought patterns of all different kinds of people groups that exist and will emerge in our time; we also need to be aware of the methods, customs, skills, symbols, aims, and worldview of the Biblical writers' over against our own cultures' methods, customs, skills, symbols, aims, and worldview when we read the Scriptures and let them speak to us; but finally we can trust in God's sovereign grace through all these efforts that He will work above and beyond our failures, inabilities, and carelessness to advance His kingdom and build His church. Soli deo gloria!

Confessions Writing Project #1

I'm going to attempt to summarize and highlight my experience of reading through Augustine's Confessions as writing project to build my writing skills and develop my reading and retention skills...and of course to talk about Augustine's Confessions. It goes without saying that I won't be saying much compared to everyone else who's responded to Augustine over the past 1600 years, but, no matter, I have other aims for now.

I'll start with the introduction to the Oxford University translation by Henry Chadwick. In discussing the aims and situation of Augustine's writing of the Confessions, Chadwick mentions that at the end of his life, Augustine wrote a review and reappraisal of his work entitled Retractationes (which, Chadwick says, cannot be translated 'Retractions', because Augustine affirms nearly all of what he wrote). Chadwick says this about Augustine's perspective on the Confessions,
"When he came to the Confessions he observes that they serve to excite the human mind and affection towards God; the act of writing the book had done that for himself at the time, and 'that is the effect when it is read now'."
When I first started reading the Confessions, I made a note next to this saying, "this is when it is good to write." That was back in 2003 (it took me a while to come back around to the book to finish it apparently). I still feel the same way. Of course, in the discipline of writing as in any discipline there are times of awkward and painful growth, many times the soil gives way to beautiful fruit, ten, twenty, and one hundred-fold. "Inspiration or feeling is borne of regular daily work," said Camille Pissaro, the 19th century French Impressionist painter who has been called the "Father of Impressionism" . (I saw this quote while at an art gallery in Florence last spring break. Sometimes you just get lucky and see the right things...)
Chadwick goes on to explain that Augustine wrote his Confessions over the course of three years at the end of the fourth century as a "man in his mid-forties, recently made a bishop, needing to come to terms with a past in which numerous enemies and critics showed an unhealthy interest." As with many other aspects of Augustine's life, there is striking familiarity with contemporary figures and situations. Chuck Colson and his book Born Again come to mind first.
But I'm digressing. I mentioned this first to recognize that it took three years for Augustine to write his Confessions. On the one hand, that's a heck of a long time to write a book, let alone one's own story, but on the other hand (maybe a tired one at that after all that writing), he wrote it all by hand. No typewriters, no computers, no editors. Pretty impressive. So, even if it takes a while and is not easy going, writing is good and well worth it, especially when it serves to "excite the human mind and affection towards God", both for the writer and the reader.
Lord, may that be true of all that I ever write, whether for myself alone or for others with me.

Orthodox and Born Again

Dr. Brad Nasiff of North Park University and an Orthodox theologian reflects on what has kept him believing in Christ after years and years of scholarship and life. His answer may surprise you!

http://audio.ancientfaith.com/nassif/so5_pc.mp3

Great Light of the World Come to Impart (old and new)

I make the cross of Christ upon my breast,
over the tablet of my hard heart,
and I beseech the Living God of the universe -
may the Light of Lights come
to my dark heart from Thy place;
may the Spirit's wisdom come to my heart's tablet
from my Saviour.

-From the Aidan compline, who lived in the early 7th century in Ireland.

Sometimes at night
I am afraid
I cover my eyes,
Cover my shame
So here in the dark
Broken apart
Come with your light
And fill up my heart
Oh great light of the world
Fill up my soul
I’m half a man here
So come make me whole
Oh great light of the world
Come to impart
The light of your grace
To fill up my heart

The wind of this world
Can push us around
Folding us up
Backing us down
But here in the dark
I’m not alone
So come with your strength
And carry me home
Oh great light of the world
Fill up my soul
I’m half a man here
So come make me whole
Oh great light of the world
Come to impart
The light of your grace
Oh great light of the world
Fill up my soul
I’m half a man here
So come make me whole
Oh great light of the world
Come to impart
The light of your grace
To fill up my heart
The light of your grace
To fill up my heart

-Bebo Norman, Great Light Of The World